First Edition: April 27, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Telehealth Will Be Free, No Copays, They Said. But Angry Patients Are Getting Billed.
Karen Taylor had been coughing for weeks when she decided to see a doctor in early April. COVID-19 cases had just exceeded 5,000 in Texas, where she lives. Cigna, her health insurer, said it would waive out-of-pocket costs for “telehealth” patients seeking coronavirus screening through video conferences. So Taylor, a sales manager, talked with her physician on an internet video call. The doctor’s office charged her $70. She protested. But “they said, ‘No, it goes toward your deductible and you’ve got to pay the whole $70,’” she said. (Hancock, 4/27)

Kaiser Health News: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: What A Fleet Of Firetrucks Can Teach About Public Health
Ryan Gamlin spent a decade on the business side of health care — working with insurance companies. That was before he went to medical school. Now, he’s an anesthesiologist in Los Angeles and on the front lines fighting COVID-19.It’s an experience he described as “scary, in a way that I never expected to be scared, going to work.” He was frightened one day last summer, too, when a California wildfire came within feet of the hospital where he was working. But then, a fleet of firetrucks showed up to protect the hospital. (Weissmann, 4/27)

The New York Times: Governors, Facing Pressures On All Sides, Weigh Reopening Their States 
Facing the same competing pressures between keeping people safe in a pandemic and reviving some elements of a more functioning society, governors around the country Sunday made their case for steps they were taking — or not taking — to begin reopening. Their efforts reflected the halting patchwork of attempts by several states to begin moving past severe restrictions in the face of the coronavirus, as a cascade of stay-at-home orders began to expire. (Dewan and Swales, 4/26)

Reuters: Next Wave Of U.S. States Set To Reopen As Coronavirus Could Push Jobless Rate To 16%
Another wave of states prepared to ease coronavirus restrictions on U.S. commerce this week, despite health experts warning there is still too little diagnostic testing, while the White House forecast a staggering jump in the nation’s monthly jobless rate. (Brown and O'Brien, 4/26)

The Washington Post: Reopening Of America Accelerates As States Prepare To Relax Coronavirus Restrictions
Ready or not, America is opening back up. The process that began in recent days with back-in-business nail salons and unbarred sandy beaches in a scattering of states is poised to accelerate over the coming week across wide swaths of the country. After shutting down much of American life in March and keeping people home throughout April, governors are preparing to lift restrictions as the calendar turns to May — and cross their fingers that the novel coronavirus doesn’t come roaring back. (Witte, Stanley-Becker, Wootson and Eger, 4/25)

The Washington Post: Social Distancing Could Last Months, White House Coronavirus Coordinator Says
Some form of social distancing will probably remain in place through the summer, Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus task force coordinator, said Sunday — the same day several governors expressed optimism about the course of the virus and outlined their plans for a piecemeal reopening of their economies. It was the latest instance of conflicting signals coming not just from state and federal leaders but also from within the Trump administration in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic that so far has claimed the lives of more than 54,000 Americans. (Sonmez, Winfield Cunningham and Kornfield, 4/26)

The New York Times: Reopening Of New York Could Begin Upstate After May 15, Cuomo Says
With promising indications that the coronavirus contagion has passed its peak, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York laid out a broad outline on Sunday for a gradual restart of the state that would allow some “low-risk” businesses upstate to reopen as soon as mid-May. The governor’s announcement, coming as the state recorded its lowest death daily toll in nearly a month, was filled with caveats, but nonetheless offered the clearest outline yet for recovery in New York, the national center of the outbreak, with nearly 17,000 dead. That human devastation has largely been confined thus far to New York City and its sprawling suburbs. (McKinley, 4/26)

Stat: Many States Short Of Covid-19 Testing Levels Needed For Reopening 
More than half of U.S. states will have to significantly step up their Covid-19 testing to even consider starting to relax stay-at-home orders after May 1, according to a new analysis by Harvard researchers and STAT. The analysis shows that as the U.S. tries to move beyond its monthslong coronavirus testing debacle — faulty tests, shortages of tests, and guidelines that excluded many people who should have been tested to mitigate the outbreak — it is at risk of fumbling the next challenge: testing enough people to determine which cities and states can safely reopen and stay open. Doing so will require the ability to catch reappearances of the coronavirus before it again spreads uncontrollably. (Begley, 4/27)

The New York Times: As States Push To Reopen, Business Leaders Say Not So Fast
Companies in a handful of states have begun taking tentative steps to reopen stores, offices and factories that were closed by the coronavirus. Yet as the first employees and customers return, interviews with roughly 30 major employers show that businesses are confronting deep uncertainty, and many say it is simply too soon to come back. Across the country, businesses are confronting a patchwork set of regulations that vary from state to state, and industry to industry. Government officials are sending mixed messages about who should open. (Gelles, Kelly and Yaffe-Bellany, 4/26)

The New York Times: Serving Wings And A Prayer: It’s Back To Business For Fairbanks Restaurants
Most of America now eats at the dining room table, or at the kitchen table, or on the couch, or in bed, or out on the front stoop. But in Alaska, at a place called the Roundup Steakhouse and Saloon, something remarkable happened in this age of infection. The place was open! People weren’t sitting at home! Food could be ordered and served, and it wasn’t in a takeout box! (Black and Johnson, 4/25)

The New York Times: Can Antibody Tests Help End The Coronavirus Pandemic?
A survey of New Yorkers last week found that one in five city residents carried antibodies to the new coronavirus — and in that, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo saw good news. If so many had been infected and survived, he reasoned, the virus may be far less deadly than previously thought. But many scientists took a darker view, seeing instead a vast pool of people who are still very vulnerable to infection. Like the leaders of many states, Mr. Cuomo has been hoping that the results of large-scale antibody testing may guide decisions about when and how to reopen the economy and reintegrate society. (Madavilli, 4/26)

Politico: Unreliable Antibody Tests Flood The Market As FDA Waives Quality Reviews
The Food and Drug Administration is dealing with a flood of inaccurate coronavirus antibody tests after it allowed more than 120 manufacturers and labs to bring the tests to market without an agency review. The tests, which look for antibodies that reveal whether a person has been exposed to the virus, have been eyed as a tool to help reopen the country by identifying people who may have immunity. Antibody data could also help determine the true size of the U.S. outbreak by finding cases that were never formally diagnosed. (Brennan and Lim, 4/27)

The Associated Press: Answers To Questions About New Coronavirus Antibody Studies
Studies have begun to emerge that try to determine how many Americans have been infected by the new coronavirus. But are they accurate? The results depend on where and how the research is done, and it can be difficult to draw firm conclusions from the early findings, experts said. For instance, a study in New York state, one of the nation’s most infected, estimated that the true number of infections is about 10 times the official count. (Stobbe, 4/24)

The Associated Press: Many States Fall Short Of Mandate To Track Virus Exposure
As more states push to reopen their economies, many are falling short on one of the federal government’s essential criteria for doing so — having an efficient system to track people who have been physically near a person infected with the coronavius. An Associated Press review found a patchwork of systems around the country for so-called contact tracing, with many states unable to keep up with caseloads and scrambling to hire and train enough people to handle the task for the months ahead. The effort is far less than what public health experts say is needed to guard against a resurgence of the virus. (Cassidy and Dearen, 4/25)

Reuters: Investors Bet On Testing, Treatments For Restart Of U.S. Economy
Investors are pinning their hopes for the reopening of the U.S. economy on the potential for wider availability of testing for COVID-19 cases and on drug trials for treatments of the deadly disease but said, until there is concrete progress in these areas, further stock market gains may be limited. (Carew, 4/26)

The Washington Post: ‘Quarantine Fatigue’: Researchers Find More Americans Venturing Out Against Coronavirus Stay-At-Home Orders
Researchers tracking smartphone data say they recently made a disturbing discovery: For the first time since states began implementing stay-at-home orders in mid-March to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, Americans are staying home less. The nationwide shift during the week of April 13 was relatively slight. However, any loss of momentum, particularly when stay-in-place orders remain in effect across most of the country, has some public health experts worried about “quarantine fatigue.” (Shaver, 4/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Tamps Down Azar Departure Speculation
President Trump told Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in a call on Sunday that he wants to keep him in his post, after learning of discussions under way in the White House about replacing the secretary, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal and other outlets reported on Saturday that administration officials were discussing replacing Mr. Azar following criticism of his management of the early response to the coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Trump was frustrated by the reports and wanted to push back, another person familiar with the matter said. (Armour and Ballhaus, 4/26)

Reuters: Trump Rejects Reports That He Will Fire HHS Chief Azar
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday rejected reports that he was planning to fire Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, saying he was doing an “excellent job.” On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal and Politico reported that the Trump administration was considering replacing Azar, because of early missteps in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic. (4/26)

Politico: Trump Rejects Reports Of Azar Firing, Says Health Secretary ‘Doing An Excellent Job’
The tweet — which was swiftly retweeted by Azar himself — came less than a day after POLITICO and the Wall Street Journal first reported on Saturday night that White House officials were weighing a plan to replace Azar. Other news outlets, including CNN and the Washington Post, confirmed the story. Trump also spent much of Sunday attacking news outlets, including the New York Times and Fox News, for their coverage of his presidency. White House officials have been frustrated with Azar’s management style after clashes with his deputies. Some have blamed him for months for fumbling the handling of the coronavirus crisis, including the rollout of coronavirus testing across February. But they have worried about replacing the HHS secretary in the middle of a global pandemic. (Diamond, 4/26)

The Washington Post: White House Officials Weigh Replacement Of HHS Secretary Azar
Five aides familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation told The Post the president had not yet weighed in. Trump did that publicly on Sunday evening. “Reports that H.H.S. Secretary @AlexAzar is going to be “fired” by me are Fake News,” he tweeted at 5:53 p.m. “The Lamestream Media knows this, but they are desperate to create the perception of chaos & havoc in the minds of the public.” (Abutaleb and Dawsey, 4/26)

The Associated Press: No, Don't Inject Disinfectant: Outcry Over Trump's Musing
President Donald Trump’s raising of unproven, even far-fetched ideas for fighting COVID-19 -- including his latest musing about injecting disinfectants into people -- triggered an outcry from health officials everywhere. It also highlighted his unconventional approach to the special responsibility that comes with speaking from the presidential pulpit. Trump readily admits he’s not a doctor. Yet with the reported U.S. death toll from the virus topping 50,000, he continues to use the White House podium to promote untested drugs and float his own ideas for treatment as he tries to project optimism. (Riechmann and Madhani, 4/26)

The New York Times: How Do You Sign ‘Don’t Drink Bleach’?
“Coronavirus” is one fist nestled against and behind the other, then opened, fingers spread like a sunburst or a peacock tail. Rorri Burton demonstrates via FaceTime, her sturdy hands and bare nails even cleaner than she usually scrubs them. The gesture is almost pretty compared to, say, “serological testing,” which, as she translates it, goes: “Pricked finger, test, analyze, see. Person before had coronavirus inside body? Doesn’t matter. Feels sick? Not feels sick? Doesn’t matter.” (Hubler, 4/27)

Politico: Trump Skips Briefing Amid Fears Of Overexposure
President Donald Trump skipped his daily coronavirus briefing on Saturday, amid concerns among Republicans and White House advisers that his near-constant presence on television is diminishing his standing and could sabotage his reelection campaign. Trump, who has been criticized for a series of missteps in his handling of the coronavirus crisis, has seen public approval of his performance during the pandemic drop in recent weeks and his poll numbers slip in key battleground states. (Murray, 4/25)

The Hill: Birx: 'It Bothers Me' Trump Comments On Injecting Disinfectant 'Still In The News Cycle' 
Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said Sunday that news coverage of President Trump's comments about light, heat and disinfectants as potential treatments for the coronavirus is overshadowing important information the public needs. Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if Trump’s comments from the Thursday White House briefing bothered her, Birx said, “I think it bothers me this is still in the news cycle.” “I think we're missing the bigger pieces of what we need to be doing as an American people to continue to protect one another,” Birx said. (Klar, 4/26)

Politico: How Overly Optimistic Modeling Distorted Trump Team’s Coronavirus Response
As coronavirus cases climbed daily by the thousands and the nation entered its second month of an economic standstill, President Donald Trump latched onto a sign of hope: A pandemic model closely followed by political leaders and public health specialists projected the virus would kill as few as 60,000 Americans, a figure far below what officials previously feared. The new April forecast signaled the worst would soon be over, with some states effectively ending their bout with coronavirus as early as the end of the month. (Cancryn, 4/24)

Reuters: U.S. Response To Virus Splinters Into Acrimony And Uncertainty
Six weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency over the spreading new coronavirus, the United States is deeply divided over the correct economic and health response. (Schneider, 4/26)

The New York Times: 260,000 Words, Full Of Self-Praise, From Trump On The Virus
At his White House news briefing on the coronavirus on March 19, President Trump offered high praise for the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn. “He’s worked, like, probably as hard or harder than anybody,” Mr. Trump said. Then he corrected himself: “Other than maybe Mike Pence — or me.” On March 27, Mr. Trump boasted about marshaling federal resources to fight the virus, ignoring his early failures and smearing previous administrations. “Nobody has done anything like we’ve been able to do,” he claimed. “And everything I took over was a mess. It was a broken country in so many ways. In so many ways.” (Peters, Plott and Haberman, 4/26)

The Washington Post: Trump Fills Briefings With Attacks And Boasts, But Little Empathy
President Trump strode to the lectern in the White House briefing room Thursday and, for just over an hour, attacked his rivals, dismissing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as a “sleepy guy in a basement of a house” and lambasting the media as “fake news” and “lamestream.” He showered praise on himself and his team, repeatedly touting the “great job” they were doing as he spoke of the “tremendous progress” being made toward a vaccine and how “phenomenally” the nation was faring in terms of mortality. (Bump and Parker, 4/26)

The Washington Post: Trump Expands Battle With WHO Far Beyond Aid Suspension
President Trump and his top aides are working behind the scenes to sideline the World Health Organization on several fronts as they seek to shift blame for the novel coronavirus pandemic to the world body, according to U.S. and foreign officials involved in the discussions. Last week, the president announced a 60-day hold on U.S. money to the WHO, but other steps by his top officials go beyond a temporary funding freeze, raising concerns about the permanent weakening of the organization amid a rapidly spreading crisis. (Hudson, Dawsey and Mehennet, 4/25)

Politico: Biden Wants A New Stimulus 'A Hell Of A Lot Bigger' Than $2 Trillion
Joe Biden wants a more progressive approach to economic stimulus legislation than Washington has taken so far, including much stricter oversight of the Trump administration, much tougher conditions on business bailouts and long-term investments in infrastructure and climate that have so far been largely absent from congressional debates. In a fiery half-hour interview with POLITICO, the presumptive Democratic nominee sounded a bit like his angrier and less moderate primary rivals, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, though in unexpurgated Biden style. (Grunwald, 4/25)

The Hill: Biden Takes Back Seat To Pelosi, Schumer In Coronavirus Response 
Presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden is mostly watching from the sidelines as fellow Democrats in Congress and at the state level clash with President Trump over the federal government’s response to the coronavirus. With the election just a little more than six months away, the Democrats making headlines almost every day are Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and governors such as Andrew Cuomo of New York. (Bolton, 4/26)

The New York Times: Nervous Republicans See Trump Sinking, And Taking Senate With Him
President Trump’s erratic handling of the coronavirus outbreak, the worsening economy and a cascade of ominous public and private polling have Republicans increasingly nervous that they are at risk of losing the presidency and the Senate if Mr. Trump does not put the nation on a radically improved course. The scale of the G.O.P.’s challenge has crystallized in the last week. With 26 million Americans now having filed for unemployment benefits, Mr. Trump’s standing in states that he carried in 2016 looks increasingly wobbly: New surveys show him trailing significantly in battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, and he is even narrowly behind in must-win Florida. (Martin and Haberman, 4/25)

The Washington Post: ‘We’re Basically Ill-Prepared’: Hobbled House Majority Frets About Its Effectiveness Amid Pandemic
House Democrats have blasted President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as inept and dangerous. Party leaders insisted on the creation of a special committee to root out abuse in the nearly $3 trillion of federal aid flowing to shuttered businesses and unemployed workers. And they have called for a robust national strategy for mass testing and tracing of the illness that has claimed more than 53,000 U.S. lives. Yet amid the biggest national crisis in generations, the one branch of government where Democrats hold power has largely sidelined itself, struggling so far to adopt remote voting, Zoom video hearings or any of the other alternative methods that have become standard for most workplaces in the age of covid-19. (DeBonis and Kane, 4/26)

Politico: Backlash Grows As Pandemic Relief Stumbles
Congress’ mad dash to shovel nearly $3 trillion into the economy and rescue failing industries met little resistance as the coronavirus crisis overwhelmed communities across the country. But now the hangover has set in. The sprawling CARES Act, and its similarly rushed companion bills, has fueled rising angst for lawmakers. They’ve been bombarded with complaints about breakdowns in the small business lending program, loopholes that have allowed large companies to snatch cash meant for smaller operations and administrative failures that have delayed stimulus checks to struggling American households. (Cheney and Ferris, 4/27)

The Washington Post: McConnell’s Rejection Of Federal Aid For States Risks Causing A Depression, Analysts Say
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would rather see states declare bankruptcy than give them federal aid to deal with the economic collapse triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. That’s a recipe for turning a potentially short recession into a prolonged depression, according to officials and analysts. (McCartney, 4/27)

The Washington Post: Tensions Emerge Among Republicans Over Coronavirus Spending And How To Rescue The Economy
The economic havoc wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic is opening up a rift in the Republican Party — as the Trump administration and some GOP senators advocate for more aggressive spending while senior party leaders say now may be the time to start scaling back. President Trump is promoting costly ideas such as infrastructure investment and a payroll tax cut as his top economic official plays down the impact of additional virus spending on the national debt. (Kim, 4/25)

NPR: Americans Are Generally Skeptical Of Government, But Want It To Intervene In A Crisis
Americans are generally skeptical of too much government intervention. Over the last three decades, the number of people saying they want the government to do less usually outnumbers those saying they want it to do more, according to Gallup. The times when that hasn't been true or when that gap has shrunk have roughly coincided with times of national crisis. However, over the last several years, those saying government should do more to solve the country's problems has crept up to almost being on par with those saying government is doing too much. (Montanaro, 4/27)

The New York Times: Closed Hospitals Leave Rural Patients ‘Stranded’ As Coronavirus Spreads
Michael Nuzum had spent weeks fighting coronavirus-like symptoms — a wracking cough, terrible chills, an exhausting fever — before collapsing at his home in rural West Virginia. Mr. Nuzum, a 54-year-old animal control worker, was already in cardiac arrest when the emergency workers arrived on April 3. That left them with a difficult decision: Should they transport their patient to the nearest hospital, 30 minutes away? “There’s only so much one paramedic can do in the back of an ambulance,” said Michael Angelucci, who leads the Marion County rescue squad that cared for Mr. Nuzum. (Kliff, Silver-Greenberg and Kluish, 4/26)

The New York Times: Where Americans Live Far From The Emergency Room
As the coronavirus outbreak spreads into rural parts of the United States, more people who live far from a hospital are increasingly likely to need one. That poses challenges for communities where hospitals are scarce and I.C.U. beds are in short supply — even a relatively small outbreak there could overwhelm medical resources, with potentially grim consequences for public health. Research shows people are less likely to seek health care, even emergency care, when they need to travel farther to get it, especially when they are more than about 30 minutes from a hospital. (Koeze, Patel and Singhvi, 4/26)

The New York Times: One Rich N.Y. Hospital Got Warren Buffett’s Help. This One Got Duct Tape.
It has been hours since the 71-year-old man in Room 3 of the intensive care unit succumbed to Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. His body has been cleaned, packed in an orange bag and covered in a white sheet, but the overextended transport team from the morgue has yet to arrive. The nurses on duty have too many other worries. University Hospital of Brooklyn, in the heart of the city hit hardest by a world-altering pandemic, can seem like it is falling apart. The roof leaks. The corroded pipes burst with alarming frequency. On one of the intensive care units, plastic tarps and duct tape serve as flimsy barriers separating patients. Nurses record vital signs with pen and paper, rather than computer systems. (Schwirtz, 4/26)

Reuters: Special Report: Countries, Companies Risk Billions In Race For Coronavirus Vaccine
In the race to develop a vaccine to end the COVID-19 pandemic, governments, charities and Big Pharma firms are sinking billions of dollars into bets with extraordinarily low odds of success. They’re fast-tracking the testing and regulatory review of vaccines with no guarantee they will prove effective. They’re building and re-tooling plants for vaccines with slim chances of being approved. They’re placing orders for vaccines that, in the end, are unlikely to be produced. (Steenhuysen, Eisler, Martell and Nebehay, 4/25)

Politico: Ousting Vaccine Chief ‘Is Going To Set Us Back,’ Former FDA Head Says
Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the ouster of a top vaccine expert at the Department of Health and Human Services would likely set back efforts to quickly roll out a vaccine for the coronavirus. Asked in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" whether forcing out Rick Bright as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority would have an impact, Gottlieb responded, "It's hard to say it doesn't." (O'Brien, 4/26)

CIDRAP: WHO, Partners Unveil Massive COVID-19 Vaccine, Treatment Effort
The World Health Organization (WHO)—backed by several world leaders and global health groups— launched an initiative to fast-track the development and scale-up of COVID-19 vaccines and drugs and make them available to nations who need them the most. With several continents continuing to report hefty daily case totals—and notable surges in Russia and India, for example—the global COVID-19 total reached 2,783,512 cases today in 185 countries, according the Johns Hopkins online dashboard. So far, at least 195,313 people have died from their infections. (Schnirring, 4/24)

Stat: STAT's Covid-19 Drugs And Vaccines Tracker
In the months since the novel coronavirus rose from a regional crisis to a global threat, drug makers large and small have scrambled to advance their best ideas for thwarting a pandemic. Some are taking a cue from older antivirals. Some are tapping tried-and-true technologies, and others are pressing forward with futuristic approaches to human medicine. Here’s a guide to some of the most talked-about efforts to treat or prevent coronavirus infection, with details on the science, history, and timeline for each endeavor. (4/27)

The New York Times: Prescriptions Surged As Trump Praised Drugs In Coronavirus Fight
It was at a midday briefing last month that President Trump first used the White House telecast to promote two antimalarial drugs in the fight against the coronavirus. “I think it could be something really incredible,” Mr. Trump said on March 19, noting that while more study was needed, the two drugs had shown “very, very encouraging results” in treating the virus. By that evening, first-time prescriptions of the drugs — chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine — poured into retail pharmacies at more than 46 times the rate of the average weekday, according to an analysis of prescription data by The New York Times. (Gabler and Keller, 4/25)

The Associated Press: U.S. States Build Stockpiles Of Malaria Drug Touted By Trump
State and local governments across the United States have obtained about 30 million doses of a malaria drug touted by President Trump to treat patients with the coronavirus, despite warnings from doctors that more research is needed. At least 22 states and Washington, D.C., secured shipments of the drug, hydroxychloroquine, according to information compiled from state and federal officials by The Associated Press. (McCombs and Whitehurst, 4/26)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Veterans Affairs Chief Plugs Unproven Drug
Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie is taking advocacy of an unproven drug for the coronavirus even farther than President Donald Trump, claiming without evidence that it’s safe and that it has been effective for young and middle-aged veterans in particular. On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an alert warning doctors against prescribing the drug for COVID-19 outside of hospitals and research settings because of the risks of serious side effects and death. (Yen, 4/24)

The New York Times: F.T.C. Warns 10 Companies About Virus-Related Health And Business Claims
The Federal Trade Commission has warned 10 companies to stop making health claims about treating and preventing the coronavirus or pitching business opportunities amid the pandemic, the agency announced on Friday. The group of letters represent the first time the F.T.C. has issued warnings about claims of potential earnings related to the economic fallout from the pandemic. The commission and the Food and Drug Administration have previously sent warning letters about unapproved health products related to the coronavirus. (Diaz, 4/25)

The New York Times: Could The Power Of The Sun Slow The Coronavirus? 
Will summertime slow the virus that causes Covid-19, as it has done with many other viruses that sow flu, colds and pneumonia? A new study finds that it may, though not enough to wipe out the pathogen or keep the pandemic from resurging in the fall. The study, done by ecological modelers at the University of Connecticut, understands the main natural weapon against the novel germ to be ultraviolet light — an invisible but energetic part of the sun’s electromagnetic spectrum that’s well-known for damaging DNA, killing viruses and turning healthy human skin cells into cancerous ones. (Broad, 4/24)

The New York Times: Can Estrogen And Other Sex Hormones Help Men Survive Covid-19?
As the novel coronavirus swept through communities around the world, preying disproportionately on the poor and the vulnerable, one disadvantaged group has demonstrated a remarkable resistance. Women, whether from China, Italy or the U.S., have been less likely to become acutely ill — and far more likely to survive. Which has made doctors wonder: Could hormones produced in greater quantities by women be at work? Now scientists on two coasts, acting quickly on their hunches in an effort to save men’s lives, are testing the hypothesis. The two clinical trials will each dose men with the sex hormones for limited durations. (Rabin, 4/27)

The Washington Post: WHO Says No Evidence Recovery Prevents Second Infection As Deaths Surpass 200,000 Worldwide
The World Health Organization on Saturday said there was not enough evidence that a person who has recovered from covid-19 is immune from a second infection. This comes as the known coronavirus death toll worldwide surpassed 200,000, though the true figure is unknown. (4/26)

The Associated Press: Invisible Virus, Invisible Fear: How To Navigate The Unseen?
Back in the early 20th century, the baseball pitcher Walter Johnson confounded opposing batters by throwing the fastest fastball they’d ever seen. “You can’t hit what you can’t see,” they would say. A century later, it’s an apt saying for those navigating this unusual moment. The surreptitious and the invisible are defining the human landscape during these weeks in ways we are only barely beginning to understand. (Anthony, 4/27)

The Washington Post: New D.C. Hospital Numbers Suggest Kids Do Face Some Risk Of Coronavirus Hospitalization 
An analysis by doctors at Children’s National Hospital in Washington calls into question the commonly held — and comforting — assumption that children seem to escape the novel coronavirus’s more serious impacts. “We have been ready, but frankly, surprised,” Roberta DeBiasi, the hospital’s infectious disease division chief, said Friday. “We are actually having a significant number of admissions and critical care admissions.” (Swenson, 4/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Connecticut Plans To Relocate Patients Recovering From Coronavirus, And The First Arrive In A Small Town
The rural town of Sharon, Conn., is the state’s first test of a plan to relocate older nursing-home residents recovering from the new coronavirus. More than 50 patients recovering from the virus who were discharged from hospitals in cities such as Hartford and Danbury moved into Sharon Health Care Center, the town’s 88-bed nursing home, this past week. To make room, the center moved out all of its regular residents, except for eight who tested positive for Covid-19. (De Avila, 4/26)

The New York Times: Nursing Homes In Some States Told To Take Patients Infected With Coronavirus 
Neal Nibur has lived in a nursing home for about a year, ever since he had a bad bout of pneumonia. Now, the 80-year-old man has not only his own health to worry about but that of his neighbors at the Poughkeepsie, N.Y., residence. Four new patients recently arrived from the hospital with Covid-19. They were admitted for one reason, according to staff members: A state guideline says nursing homes cannot refuse to take patients from hospitals solely because they have the coronavirus. (Barker and Harris, 4/24)

The Associated Press: Can Nursing Homes Dedicated To Virus Patients Stop Spread?
A few states may have found a way to help slow the spread of the coronavirus in nursing homes by converting some of them into “recovery centers” set aside mostly for residents who have left the hospital but still might be contagious or lack immunity. Critics worry about harming frail, elderly residents by transferring them to make room in repurposed nursing homes. (Haigh, 4/26)

ProPublica: Nursing Homes Violated Basic Health Standards, Allowing The Coronavirus To Explode
One by one, toward the end of March, residents of Enumclaw Health and Rehabilitation Center outside of Seattle started coming down with symptoms of COVID-19. On March 22, residents in Rooms 503 and 522 were moved to a wing for COVID-19 patients. Another resident began showing symptoms, too, and was also moved. In all three cases, their roommates were left in their rooms and staff were given no instructions about using any added precautions to care for them. (Ornstein and Sanders, 4/24)

ProPublica: “Did I Mess This Up?” A Father Dying From Coronavirus, A Distraught Daughter And A Midnight Rescue.
The voice on the message started out calm but soon faltered. Natasha Roland wanted to report what happened to her father at the Queens Adult Care Center, a home for some 350 low-income elderly and mentally ill adults that I’d described as an epidemiologist’s nightmare in a story the previous week. “They had been telling me since March that they didn’t have any virus cases,” Roland said, her words quickening. “They were telling me that my father was OK. When I went there to get my dad, he hadn’t eaten in a week. My dad was dying. He couldn’t move.” (Sapien, 4/25)

The Washington Post: Covid-19 Is Ravaging One Of The Country’s Wealthiest Black Counties
The intensive care unit at Inova Alexandria Hospital has empty beds, and doctors are prepared for a rush of coronavirus patients that has yet to hit the largely white suburb. A dozen miles away at Adventist HealthCare Fort Washington Hospital Center, the ICU is full, and employees treat coronavirus patients in medical tents in the parking lot. Paramedics across Prince George’s County are summoned daily to help people struggling to breathe, and funeral home directors are searching for more places to store bodies. (Chason, Wiggins and Harden, 4/26)

The New York Times: ‘Possible Covid’: Why The Lulls Never Last For Weary E.M.S. Crews
For seven and a half hours, the two New York City paramedics had worked a surprisingly normal shift: a few people with difficulty breathing, one trip to the hospital — and, miraculously it seemed, no clear cases of coronavirus. They were about to head back to their station when an urgent call flashed over their dispatch screen: cardiac arrest, with a patient who had been feeling sick for a week. “Heads up,” a radio barked. “Possible Covid.” (Watkins, 4/27)